Loro Parque announces birth of new baby orca

Loro Parque announces birth of new baby orca

I know this is a hugely controversial issue, but Loro Parque has announced the arrival of a male baby orca in the OrcaOcean facility. The Parque, which says it’s delighted at the event, reports that the mother, Kohana, was in labour for four hours, and the baby is said to be the first Canarian- and Spanish-born whale.

The infant was born early this morning, weighing 150 kilos and measuring 2 metres. A huge team of vets, biologists, trainers and experts were on hand to supervise every detail of the delivery. Moments after being born, the baby whale instinctively swam to the surface to take its first breath.

Kohana herself is 8 years old and was born in Sea World in America. She is apparently the youngest ever first-time mother, at least of births in captivity. Loro Parque says that, as often occurs in the wild, a maternal bond has still not been established, and so expert carers are supporting the baby’s feeding regime.

Whatever one’s views on the captivity of these magnificent creatures, I think we’ll all marvel at the astounding video above of the birth itself. PV

5 Comments

Wow, very young mother indeed for an Orca!
I’m sorry, I cannot cheer for you. This means another beautiful young life in miserable captive conditions, swimming her rounds for how many years?
You’re right, the video of the birth is great. Thanks for posting this.

I hope I didn’t give the impression that I was looking for cheers! It was a straight factual report because I am very far indeed from comfortable with the captivity of sea creatures. The Loro Parque Foundation, however, does so much good that I find it impossible to condemn it. The video is stupendous though, I agree!

Actually, Kalina was also very young. She was impregnated when she was six years old, and factoring in that orca gestation is about 15-17 months, then it would be fair to say that Kohana is right up there with Kalina.

Thank you for posting this article, it is a controversial issue, so it is always good to give fact based reports.

Also, if you update these articles at all:
Kohana rejected her calf. I thought there was something odd to the fact that she didn’t support him or swim with him right after birth. Every video I have seen of orca births is ussually followed by mom quickly swimming under the calf and helping to lift it to the surface. I didn’t see any of that. The part at the end when he was swimming by himself, completely alone, was rather alarming.

From what I could gather on Loro Parque’s website, she has not yet shown interest in him, and and vets have taken over. If you ask me, the odds are against him. Most calves in the past didn’t survive if mom didn’t nurse them properly.

He did look like a strong calf. Swimming by himself. We need to give him a fine spanish name.